Is Erdogan waging a war of choice against the PKK?
Erdogan and the AKP win by emphasizing the threat from Kurdish terrorism; Palestinian martyrs on the rise with intifada violence; Al-Monitor backs UNICEF education program for Syrian children.
Erdogan’s ‘Machiavellian cunning’
Kadri Gursel argues that “the Erdogan regime won the [Grand National Assembly] elections by adding new problems to Turkey’s already hefty load of them and then convincing part of the electorate that only the AKP could resolve them. The credit should go to Erdogan as the architect of an exceptional tactical victory achieved with Machiavellian cunning."
Gursel suggests that increase in the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) share of the popular vote from 40.8% to 49.4% resulted from the AKP’s emphasis on the threat of terrorism from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
“The new war against the PKK, launched as a deliberate political choice by Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s regime, coupled with the bombings blamed on IS, suppressed the perception of the economic downturn as the country’s biggest problem, which had been a key factor in the AKP’s failure in the June 7 polls,” Gursel writes.
